Dale Helmig files lawsuit alleging rights violations

Friday

Dec 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2011 at 9:10 PM

Brennan David

A Central Missouri man who was convicted of the 1993 murder of his mother and then freed from prison just more than a year ago has filed a federal lawsuit against Osage County, its sheriff, a former deputy and a former state trooper — claiming they violated his constitutional rights.

Rocky Mount resident Dale Helmig, 55, filed the suit yesterday in Missouri’s Western U.S. District Court. He alleges seven violations by Osage County; Osage County Sheriff Carl A. Fowler; former deputy Paul Backues; and former Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Westfall.

The suit, which was filed by Kansas City attorneys Arthur Benson II and Brian McCallister, says the “defendants’ liability is based upon allegations which demonstrate patterns of behavior and deliberate indifference to the rights of citizens, and especially to the rights of Plaintiff Helmig, and all of which led to them depriving Helmig of rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to him by the federal and state constitutions as well as federal and state laws.”

Helmig began serving a life sentence in 1996 after being found guilty of the 1993 murder of his mother, Norma Helmig. Her body was found tied to a concrete block in a flood-swollen river in Osage County.

In his suit, Helmig alleges that Fowler and Backues failed to disclose to the prosecution or Dale Helmig that Norma Helmig had made repeated reports of abuse, violence and threats of violence by her estranged husband, Ted Helmig, in the months after the couple’s separation. The suit also alleges that Fowler said Dale Helmig had an altercation with his mother before her murder when Fowler “knew it was Ted Helmig that had committed that assault on Norma Helmig shortly before Norma Helmig’s murder.”

Also, the suit says, “Westfall failed to disclose that Dale Helmig denied murdering his mother” and falsely “testified that Dale Helmig had tacitly admitted to him that he had murdered her.”

Helmig has been unable to find a job since his December 2010 release from prison after serving 15 years. Helmig was serving a life sentence before a judge overturned the conviction as the result of a tainted trial. His freedom was ensured in April after an Osage County prosecutor decided to not refile charges against him.

Not listed as a defendant in Helmig’s lawsuit is Kenny Hulshof, who handled Helmig’s case as a special state prosecutor before he became a U.S. congressman. Though the lawsuit cites malicious prosecution and that “prosecutorial personnel” kept information supporting Helmig’s innocence from him and his attorney, Hulshof’s name is not mentioned in the 43-page complaint.

In another case, Josh Kezer was freed in 2009 — after 15 years in state prison on a murder conviction — when a judge ruled that Hulshof withheld evidence and embellished details in his closing arguments. A 2008 investigation by The Associated Press found that prosecutorial errors by Hulshof led to four death sentence reversals, though those defendants were convicted in subsequent trials.